Drive roll for a yarn windup

ABSTRACT

In an apparatus for high-speed winding of a plurality of threadlines on an equal number of separable yarn package supports on a common chuck, a drive roll for surface driving the yarn packages is provided with a novel arrangement of starting lands. The lands engage abutting ends of adjacent supports and there is another land at the inboard end of the roll. This arrangement functions to substantially eliminate axial bobbin movement which may occur when the axes of the chuck and the drive roll are warped out of parallelism.

United States Patent Wray [s41 DRIVE ROLL FOR A YARN WINDUP [72] Inventor: Rhodes Ebeling Wray, Staunton,

[73] Assignee: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, De]. I

[22] Filed: Jan. 29, 1971 [2i] App]. No.: 110,961

521 vs. Cl. ..242/1s DD, 242/355 51 nn. Cl. ..B65h 54/08 {58] Field at Search ..l8/l8 R, 18 DD, 35.5, 46.2,

[ 56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 5/1956 France ..242/l8 DD De Priest ..242/1 8 V [151 3,701,490 [4 1 Oct. 31, 1972 Great Britain ..242/ l 8 DD l/ 1968 Great Britain ..242/18 DD Primary Exar m'ner-Werner H. Schroeder Attorney-Howard P. West, Jr.

[57]" ABSTRACT In an apparatus for high-speed winding of a plurality of threadlines on an equal number of separable yarn package supports on a common chuck, a drive roll for surface driving the yarn packages is provided with a novel arrangement of starting lands. The lands engage abutting ends of adjacent supports and there is another land at the inboard end of the roll. This arrangement functions to substantially eliminate axial bobbin movement which may occur when the axes of the chuck and the drive roll arewarped out of parallelism.

2 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure P'A'TE'NTEDnm 31 I972 3. 701.490

INVENTOR RHODES EBELING WRAY ATTORNEY muvs ROLL FOR A YARN WINDUP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention concerns a continuous high-speed yarn winding apparatus and particularly relates to improved apparatus for winding yarn on a plurality of package supports on a common windup chuck in the configuration where the package supports are surface driven by a common drive roll.

Winding apparatus of the type that include a cylindrical drive roll with peripheral starting lands protruding from its surfaceand spaced so that each end of each bobbin contacts a land at startup of a winding sequence are known. When winding a plurality of bobbins on a common chuck at high speeds, there may occur some axial movement of the bobbins, sometimes called walking, during early stages of winding if the axis of the chuck and that of the drive roll have warped out of parallelism. Any such axial movement of bobbins degrades the structure of the yarn packages formed on these bobbins. The present invention substantially eliminates axial movement of one or more yarn package support bobbins on a rotatable chuck and thereby reduces the number of defective packages produced, thus improving the yield that can be realized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A windup comprising a chuck rotatably mounted at one end, a plurality of cylindrical supports frictionally engaged on the chuck and a roll for surface driving the supports. The supports are slidable on and off the other end of the chuck and extend from one end to the other of the chuck in abutting engagement with each other. The drive roll has a novel arrangement of circumferential starting lands which engage abutting ends of adjacent supports with another land at only one end of the roll. This end land is on the inboard end of the roll. The provision of a drive roll without a starting land on its outboard end reduces the axial thrust force component on the outboard end support due to misalignment between the chuck and drive roll.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The drawing is a partially schematic perspective view of a windup chuck with multiple bobbins and an as sociated drive roll with starting lands according to this invention. The roll and chuck are shown in exaggerated misalignment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The apparatus of this invention includes as basic components a windup chuck of conventional design and an improved drive roll 20. Chuck I0 is mounted on shaft 12 which is cantilevered in bearing 14. Four yarn package support bobbins l5, l6, l7 and 18 are slid onto chuck l0 and into axially adjacent positions. Bearing 14 is conventionally fixed to an arm journaled to the frame (not shown) of the winding apparatus for pivotal movement toward and away from the drive roll. The elongated cylindrical drive roll 20 is mounted on shaft 22 which is cantilevered by bearing 24, fixed in the winding apparatus frame. The cylindrical surfaces of lands 2528 on roll 20 can, therefore, be contacted by the cylindrical surfaces of bobbins 15-18 when shaft 12 of chuck 10 is pivoted about its swing arm axis and before yarn is started to wind, i.e., the roll 20 drives all supports but the outboard support 15 at each end. The inboard ends of chuck 10 and roll 20 are the ends near bearings 14 and 24, respectively. The outboard ends are, therefore, those opposite the bearings.

A conventional roll 20 would have a land located in outboard end 21 of the same thickness as and otherwise similar to lands 2548. The improved roll 20 of this invention has no such land at outboard end 21.

In operation of windups of this type it has been frequently found that the axis A-A' of chuck l0 and that B-B' of roll 20 become warped out of parallelism such as is shown by the exaggerated angle between lines AA' and 8-8 in the drawing. Thus, when starting a group of new yarn packages on fresh bobbins, there will be a small component of force exerted in the axial direction by the drive roll lands contacting the bobbins if the chuck and drive roll are misaligned. It has been found that, by eliminating the outboardmost land on the drive roll, the axial motion or walking of the bobbins during early stages of a winding is substantially eliminated probably due to reduced axial component of force exerted by the drive roll on the outboard bobbin.

I Actual tests have been made on a variety of yarn deniers over a significant period of time both with conventional drive roll land structure and with the improved structure of this invention. A significant yield improvement was shown by this invention as noted in I the following table of test results:

Denier Yield Improvement '4 18.4% b 6.6 c 3.6 d 5.4

Thus, over a period of time these yield improvements for each of different denier yarns will offer a very significant advantage in reducing the cost of producing packages of yarn.

In the preferred embodiment the outboard land has been eliminated, that is, its thickness reduced to zero. A partial reduction in the thickness of the outboard land is,considered within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a yarn windup including; a chuck rotatably mounted at an inboard end; a plurality of cylindrical supports frictionally engaged on said chuck, said supports being slidable on and off an outboard end of the chuck and extending from said-outboard to the inboard end of said chuck, adjacent supports abutting each other, said supports being surface driven by a roll having a land for engaging each two abutting ends of adjacent supports, the improvement comprising: said roll having a land at the inboard end of the roll for engaging the inboard end of the inboard support and being without a land on the outboard end of the roll, whereby said roll drives all supports but the outboard support at each end, said outboard supports being driven at one end when starting a new yarn package on said supports. I 2. The windup of claim 1, said lands being circumferential and having equal diameters. 

1. In a yarn windup including a chuck rotatably mounted at an inboard end; a plurality of cylindrical supports frictionally engaged on said chuck, said supports being slidable on and off an outboard end of the chuck and extending from said outboard to the inboard end of said chuck, adjacent supports abutting each other, said supports being surface driven by a roll having a land for engaging each two abutting ends of adjacent supports, the improvement comprising: said roll having a land at the inboard end of the roll for engaging the inboard end of the inboard support and being without a land on the outboard end of the roll, whereby said roll drives all supports but the outboard support at each end, said outboard supports being driven at one end when starting a new yarn package on said supports.
 2. The windup of claim 1, said lands being circumferential and having equal diameters. 